Okada/Naito doesn't make my top ten for 2012, but not because it wasn't a very, very good match. My reasons are based on my personal filter. I follow Puro sporadically at best but I'm fairly familiar with most of the major players and a healthy number of lesser known talent, but I really wasn't particularly familiar with Okada's work, he seemed to come out of nowhere inserted directly into the title picture. Thus, I wasn't nearly invested enough to get those butterflies.
Great match though, has made me a subsequent fan of Kazuchika's work.
Purists will obviously shit all over stuff like the Michaels-Taker series, End of an Era, and even Lesnar/Cena, but to me those are the kind of matches that define WWE. They're gateway drugs, stuff non-fans can watch and appreciate. Essentially the pinnacle of Vince's product. Sometimes ya'll act like this isn't a television show with a single creator and show-runner and you try to rate these things based on your perception of a performance art. Which is fine, its your definition, but when I think about the Sopranos finale, I think about the entire series that came before it. So, with that in mind, End of an Era was a beautiful finale for me.
I think it even holds up as a Herb Kunze, psychological performance art piece or whatever as well, but that's just subjective I suppose.
A more apt comparison would be the Oz finale: an overly long clusterfuck where as much as we tried not to believe it, we all knew what was coming, and despite some great moments, was ruined by unclear character motivations and occasional overacting, serving as a fairly fitting end to something that had gone on too long anyway.
Cena/Lesnar was a million times better than Taker/HHH. I can kinda understand why people thought it was great. It was a great piece of cinema but it wasn't a great match.
I can understand why people don't like Undertaker/HHH, but for me its still head and shoulders above anything else this year lol . Helps that I'm such a huge Undertaker mark I'm sure .
I didn't like Lesnar/Cena and my non wrestling fan friend didn't like it. He thought it was boring as fuck as did I. He just got a kick out of Lesnar lifting the referee with one hand. I really didn't like it, and I rewatched it and still didn't like it. Nowhere near the top of this year in my book.
Well there all great matches (except V Austin, street fight part was great, the other falls not so much) but HHH V Taker was some great theatre aswell as a violent and brutal spectacle and a near perfect match for me personally.
I bet if someone gave me a list of every HHH match I could probably list 100 better HHH matches than the Taker match this year. I can understand people enjoying the match but everyone of those matches BUBZ listed was and still is a million times better as a wrestling match.
Extended squashes are just about the only kind of matches worth watching.
Also vs. Jericho LMS is the best HHH singles match and w/Austin vs. Jericho/Benoit is his best match. This year's HIAC doesn't even register in the conversation.
Ah nuts, forgot the Jericho match, that's like, one of my favorite WWE matches ever as well. And yeah the tag match is my favorite match he's been involved in. I can watch that so many times and still get into it and love every second.
One of the best matches I've seen all year and, despite the hype, one of the most surprising. Okada Vs. Tanahashi didn't do much for me, and whenever Naito has wrestled someone other than Nakamura he hasn't seemed very special either. Somehow these two made each other seem like the biggest stars of a generation. I loved the leg work, I loved Okada getting spurts of offense back but then returning to weakness in the leg, and all the damage he did on Naito's head/neck was great. All the technical wrestling and counters were way above average for a non-Nagata NJPW match. I'm still having trouble buying that Rainmaker Clothesline as a finisher, but all of Naito's evasions and the parallels to his German Suplex attempts really elevated its feeling. What an awesome match.
I finally saw Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards and it is my American MOTY so far, and possibly my overall MOTY. The only match that I have on par with it is Okada vs. Naito.
The Young Bucks vs Super Smash Brothers vs The RockNES Monsters - PWG World's Finest
Everything an indy spotfest should be. Nothing more really needs to be said. Rating: ****
Antonio Cesaro vs. Tyson Kidd, WWE Superstars (5/24)
Definitely falls more into the "match I enjoyed" category as opposed to the "true MOTYC" category, but I felt the need to mention it all the same. Cesaro looks as at home in WWE as any indy guy they've ever brought in, and for my money, there is no wrestler in the world today whose position within his home promotion is as disproportionate to his talent (at least in terms of being much lower on the card than someone of his ability should be) as Kidd. I really hope he and Justin Gabriel are able to get their tag team off the ground once Gabriel returns to action, and that said team leads to bigger things for both guys. To my absolute lack of surprise, he and Cesaro seem made for each other as opponents. Definitely worth a watch.
Yeah Cesaro vs Kidd was a lot of fun. Claudio is made for the WWE.
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